Reading Books to Babies - Develop a LOVE For Reading!

Many of us hear how important it is to read to babies, but until you've either been around babies or had one...you don't see the benefits it brings. I always knew it was good to read to children, so when we had Kaelyn we did just that from the time she was very little. Now, she is 10 1/2 months old and LOVES books. She's a very active baby and hardly ever sits still, but when someone is reading to her she will sit for a very long time. In fact, she'll even grab her books when playing by herself and begin flipping through the pages and talking to herself. I like that this is an activity that she enjoys. It's one that I hope she continues to like as the years go on.



So, why read to your baby? Well...other than the fact that it's a great thing to do together, it's also a wonderful form of stimulation. It also teaches them about communication, concepts like numbers, letters, colors, etc., and helps them to learn how to listen and remember things. Most babies especially enjoy those books which repeat themselves and offer colorful pictures.

I don't know about you, but one of the most fun things to watch when we read to Kaelyn is the way she interacts. As a small baby she would just watch the pages as we read to her. Then when she was about 6 months or so she began turning the pages for us. Now she'll point to pictures and even try and say some of the objects in the pictures...."baby" and "kitty" for example. It's such a great thing parents can do with their kids, and so much fun to see them learning new things.

If you haven't started to this yet with your own baby, try and set a special time to do this each and every day....maybe even more than once a day. Also try and have age appropriate books available to them when they are playing. Not only do they learn from you reading to them, but there is so much to learn as they discover and explore on their own as well!